The first volume: The great wind rises, clouds fly high, seven knocks on the gate

  "Princess," Tu Tu exclaimed in shock, "don't scare me to death." She turned around and scolded the attendants who were at a loss in the palace, "What are you still standing there for? Hurry up and invite the imperial physician!"

  "Oh." Those people hastily replied and turned away.

  "Mother," Zhang Yan was also frightened and rushed forward to hold Lu Yuan's other side, "How are you?"

  "It's probably due to a shock that disturbed the fetal energy," said Tu Tumali, glancing at Zhang Yan with a hint of reproach in his eyes, "Let's help the princess onto the bed."

  "Tu Tu," Lu Yuan grasped her hand tightly, the force almost leaving a bruise, "My stomach hurts so much, it's killing me, am I going to die?"

  "Nonsense," said Tu Tu, her eyes reddening as she pulled the quilt over to cover her well. "The princess will be safe and sound all her life, where can this unlucky word be mentioned lightly."

  "Brother Ao, Brother Ao!" Lu Yuan shouted loudly, tears streaming down his eyes. Zhang Yan felt a pang in her heart as she watched, for just a short while ago, the bedroom had been peaceful and joyful, but now it was in complete disarray, and she stood amidst it all, an outsider.

  The commotion here quickly startled Lü Zhi, "What's going on?" she asked as she stepped inside. The hall fell silent for a moment.

  Very soon, everyone in the palace was stirred up again. "Your Majesty," Tu Tu hastily bowed, "The princess seems to have moved and disturbed the fetus."

  "How could it be like this, affecting the fetal movement?" Lv Liu's face sank, and she forced herself to calm down. She walked to Lu Yuan's bedside, grasped her daughter's hand, and comforted her, "Manhua, don't be afraid, the imperial physician and the midwife will arrive soon."

  "Painting," she raised her head, sharp eyes staring at the princess's command, "you haven't answered my question yet."

  "This..." Tu Tu hesitated.

  "Don't talk nonsense." Lu Yuan suddenly rebuked in a stern voice, his hand pinching the arm that was drawing, shaking his head lightly.

  "Mother," she turned back, rushed to Lü Yu's side, and anxiously said, "It has nothing to do with Ah Yan, it's Man Hua's own fault." She fell into tears again, "Mother, I miss Ao Ge so much, can you let him come over and keep me company?"

  Lü Yu stared blankly for a moment, her gaze swept lightly over Zhang Yan and then fell on Lu Yuan, her eyes pale and cold, "The Empress Dowager knows your thoughts, but this is not something the Empress Dowager can decide."

  Lu Yuan hung her head and wept, the words Zhang Yan had just spoken kept swirling in her mind, she couldn't shake them off no matter how hard she tried. She really wanted to not believe a single word, but for some reason, at this moment, she suddenly did.

  The imperial physician who rushed over with a medicine box had taken Lu Yuan's pulse and stood up, nodding his head towards Lv Yu, saying, "Your Majesty, it seems that the Princess is going into labor."

  Lü Zhi took a deep breath and ordered, "What are you waiting for? Go and prepare." Her voice was cold and clear, echoing through the grand hall. "Take Lady Zhao down. This is no longer a place she can stay."

  Zhang Yan stood in the hall, as if she hadn't heard anything, her soul drifting away, not knowing where to go. Su Mo looked at her with a pained expression, stepped forward and grasped Zhang Yan's hand, saying intimately, "Young Master, let's go out."

  She bit her lip stubbornly, staring fixedly at Lu Yuan surrounded by the crowd, refusing to budge an inch. Beside her ear, Su Mo let out a sigh and covered her eyes.

  Suddenly in front of me everything turned pitch black.

  "Old Master is still young, this scene of giving birth, isn't something you should be seeing." Su Mo's aunt's voice echoed softly from afar.

  She was filled with regret and hatred, hating her own impulsiveness, hating herself... If she hadn't spoken out of turn, Lu Yuan wouldn't have been startled and given birth prematurely. If Lu Yuan and the child suffered any consequences because of this, what would happen to them...

  How can she still pretend to be carefree and unaware of everything?

  In the bedroom, Lu Yuan's voice was filled with tears, "Ao Ge, Ao Ge——"

  Mother, mother.

  It's me who has wronged you so much, I should do something to fulfill your wishes.

  Zhang Yan turned and ran out of the hall, with Su Mo's astonished voice echoing behind her, "Master, what are you going to do?"

  She blocked her ears and threw the person off her back, running along the corridor. Tears fell down, blurring her eyes, unable to see the road, and bumped into someone coming from the opposite direction.

  "Ah Yan," Liu Ying hugged her and exclaimed in surprise, "What's wrong?"

  She didn't care about anything else and asked him, "Where is Emperor Ah Gong now?"

  "Father Emperor?" Liu Ying slightly frowned, even more surprised, "He's probably in the Temple of Gods now. Why are you crying like this, is your mother having a difficult labor?"

  She turned her head away, slipped under Liu Ying's arm and was already gone in a flash. Like a headless fly, she had been rushing around for a long time before realizing that the Chang Le Palace was so big that she didn't even know where the Temple of Gods was.

  She stopped in her tracks, standing right in the middle of the vast and majestic Chang Le Palace. She looked around, left and right, and as far as the eye could see, there were grand and magnificent palaces, so luxurious that they seemed like a maze, and she was a person deeply trapped in this maze, unable to distinguish directions.

  In the Chang Le Palace, the guards were changing shifts and walking along the central path between the two temple halls, passing by the wine pool corridor. She stopped someone who was just passing by her side at that moment, "Hey, you come here."

  The young school lieutenant was stunned for a moment, "Is Master Weng calling me?"

  "Uh-huh," she nodded randomly, wiping away the scattered tears, and grabbed his two hands under the eaves, "Do you know how to get to the Temple of Gods?"

  "I know."

  "Take me with you." Zhang Yan's finger pointed imperiously.

  Xiao Wei's lips slightly curled up, "Alright."

  "Hurry up," she urged.

  "Your Highness, we are the guards on duty at the palace gate. After our shift is over, we cannot enter the inner palace again," said the young captain, slightly bowing his head and looking at her with a gentle voice. "You probably came out of the Pepper Chamber Hall. The wine pool you're standing in front of now is the boundary between the inner and outer palaces of the Longevity Palace. In front of you is the Longevity Front Hall where you once knelt as punishment - the Pepper Chamber Hall is north of the Front Hall, while the Divine Immortal Hall is west of it." He pointed to a distant palace with flying eaves and explained in detail, "If you walk along the Front Hall towards the west, pass through three layers of palaces, and see the most magnificent and majestic palace, that will be the Divine Immortal Hall."

  Zhang Yan climbed up the stairs in front of the Temple of the Immortals and smelled a sweet fragrance.

  A faint, ethereal music floated down from the Temple of the Gods, where the roof was paved with four-petaled flower-patterned tiles of a deep crimson color, polished to a high gloss. The central courtyard was a deep red, and the eaves of the temple were adorned with bronze fittings, upon which stood seven-foot-five-inch-high lamps made of green jade, each supported by a coiled dragon that seemed to be swallowing the lamp, its scales shimmering as if alive, shining brightly like a row of stars. Below the temple, the orchestra was playing in full voice, countless musicians and dancing girls raising their hands to play the zither, waving their sleeves to dance, beautiful and joyful.

  "Hey," the green-robed female official stepped out to intercept him, "aren't you Zhao Guozhong's master? Why aren't you staying in the Pepper Chamber Hall, but instead running to our Madame's Immortal Hall?" It was precisely the pointed-nosed female official from yesterday at the Luo Dai Hall.

  "Let go," Zhang Yan didn't wait for her to finish speaking and pushed her away with one hand, shouting loudly, "Emperor Ah Gong."

  The soft music of the zither went off-key, the beautiful dancing girls also made a mistake in their posture, and the movements of everyone in the hall suddenly went out of sync. All sounds came to an abrupt halt. Empress Qi, who was leaning against Emperor Liu Bang's side, lifted her head, her cheeks flushed with beauty, her raised eyebrows full of charm. With a clang, she placed the bronze wine vessel on the table, the liquid inside sloshing around, splashing droplets of water.

  "Zhao Guo Weng's master," Qi Yi said in a cold and arrogant tone, "I won't bother with you, a mere child. Don't think that I'm afraid of you just because you knelt yesterday. You still haven't had enough, have you? And yet today, you dare to come to my divine temple and cause trouble. Is this how the Empress taught you to behave?"

  The palace maidens scattered to the sides, Zhang Yan was unable to get close to Liu Bang's body, but no one dared to come up and forcibly block her. "Emperor Grandfather," she wailed, crying out loud, kneeling down and begging, "Grandfather, my mother is about to give birth to a little brother, can you let my father come and accompany her?"

  Madam Qi's body trembled with rage, and in her ears, she heard Liu Bang frowning and scolding, "What nonsense! Can matters of state be settled by your crying and whining? Your parents did not teach you well, I have not punished them, already showing consideration for the relationship between parent and child."

  "Grandfather," Zhang Yan stepped forward, grasping his sleeve, and suddenly thought of the haggard Lu Yuan in the Pepper Chamber. This time, she really couldn't stop crying, her face streaming with tears. "I don't dare ask you to release Father just like that. I'm only asking you to let him see Mother once, even if...even if Mother gives birth to a younger brother and you immediately lock him up again afterwards."

  She was crying with tears streaming down her face, while the other side, Qi Yi was watching from a distance, smiling slightly. She picked up the wine jug in front of Liu Bang, poured some wine into it, and placed it to his lips. In a soft voice, she called out "Your Majesty", adding fragrance to the sleeves, her hands as white as jade. Liu Bang's color changed, his soul was sold, he drank the whole cup of wine from her hand in one gulp.

  "I don't understand the affairs of the imperial court." She glanced at Zhang Yan and whispered, "It's just that Yiyi's fever has just subsided, and he's still sleeping in the inner chamber. If Little Master Weng wakes him up, his wind chill will relapse, and Your Majesty and I will be worried again."

  Zhang Yan was so angry that she almost bit her teeth to pieces.

  Liu Bang turned his head to look at the west wing with its lowered canopy. His face stern, he rebuked, "Your mother just gave birth to a child, it's not like it's a matter of life and death, do you need to make such a big fuss? Zhao Wang is being held in the廷尉府, not in my imperial prison, how can I just say release him and he's released, or say capture him and he's captured?"

  She was bitter and resentful of Liu Bang's hypocrisy, but didn't dare to act rashly. She knelt down and kowtowed solemnly, wiping away her tears with her sleeve, and placing her hands on her knees, she said clearly, "Your Majesty's love for Uncle Ruyi is something that I, Ah Yan, can understand. Uncle Ruyi will surely reciprocate sincerely in the future. My thoughts towards my mother are the same, wishing her well and happiness. If Lady Qi falls ill or is in pain, wouldn't you want to be by her side?"

  Qī Yì sighed and put down his wine cup on the table, falling silent.

  Suddenly, a few faint noises came from the inner chamber, accompanied by some slightly respectful words from the palace staff. A boy's unclear muttering voice was heard, his tone pleasant but his words indistinguishable. Qi Yi hastily got up and entered the inner chamber, leaving behind a captivating silhouette.

  The curtain's shadow was faint and indistinct, Qi Ji sat in front of the bed, seemingly teasing Ruyi, her voice gentle.

  Ru Yi grumbled twice, turned over and continued sleeping.

  Zhang Yan gazed at the mother and son's backs in the curtain, feeling bitter and unresigned in her heart. "My mother is also Ah Gong's biological daughter. If only Ah Gong could put a little of the love he has for Uncle Ruyi on my mother, he wouldn't be so reluctant to see my mother always calling out 'husband'."

  "Grandfather," Zhang Yan reached out to pull Liu Bang's sleeve again, sorrowfully saying, "You didn't see, Grandma has been crying out in pain, she's been crying, she's been calling out for Grandpa's name, waiting for him to come over and accompany her."

  Liu Bang's face showed a hint of sadness, but he still refused to give in. He hesitated and said, "If Manhua is really uncomfortable, I'll go see her later. Zhao Wang is a suspect and can't be released - Ah, Aijie, what's wrong?"

  "Your Majesty,"

  Qī Yì stepped out of the inner palace with a light step, reached out and grasped his sleeve, looked up at him with a soft voice and said, "Why don't you let Zhang Jiao go see Princess Rú Yuán for now?"

  The next update will be at night.

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  The door was knocked open by Yan Ran.

  Happy New Year everyone.